This section provides background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the invention. It should be understood that the statements in this section of this document are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Wellbore operations commonly require circulating a fluid (e.g., drilling fluid, mud, cement, etc.) down a tubular disposed in the wellbore and at least partial back up the wellbore toward the surface. For example, during drilling operations a drilling fluid (e.g., mud) is circulated to suspend and carry the drilling cuttings to the surface. Mud is typically pumped down through the inner flow bore of the drill string, out through a drill bit at the bottom of the borehole, and back up through the annulus formed between the drill string and the wellbore wall. It is also common for the drilling fluid to be utilized to power a drilling motor disposed in the bottomhole assembly (“BHA”) of the drill string. In vertical wellbores, the velocity vector of the flowing fluid counters the gravity vector. When the velocity vector opposes the gravity vector, the cuttings are easily suspended and lifted from the wellbore. In high-angle wellbores (e.g., deviated, horizontal) the velocity vector of the flowing fluid deviates from vertical while the gravity vector remains vertical. In these wellbores the cuttings tend to settle out of the circulating fluid, e.g., on the low side of the wellbore, forming cutting beds in the wellbore. These cutting beds often result in stuck pipe.
It is common to cement a tubular (e.g., casing, liner) in at least a portion of the wellbore to complete the well. Aside from completions, cementing operations are performed, for example, but not limited to, for remedial actions (e.g., squeezes), plugging sections of wells, setting bridge plugs and plugging and abandoning wells. Cementing operations are relatively expensive operations within themselves and incomplete and/or unsuccessful cementing operations can result in lost time, lost equipment, and from time to time loss of production or injection capabilities. An unsuccessful cementing operation can result, for example, from an insufficient volume of cement slurry used, too short of setting time and/or a poor distribution of the cement slurry around the tubular. One characteristic of a successful cementing operation may be creating a substantially homogeneous seal (e.g., cement layer) around the tubular.